The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
While the US corn ethanol industry is a clear and growing success, it faces a number of issues. In the first place, the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) signed into law in 2005 will cap corn ethanol growth at 15 billion gallons/year, an insufficient amount given the world's need for ethanol. Even if that regulation should be repealed, however, its growth would be limited by the availability of corn for feedstock. In order to produce the 8 billion gallons it manufactured in 2007, the corn ethanol industry had to employ 20% of all corn-farm acreage in the USA for its purpose. Thus, there are clearly limits to corn ethanol production, regardless of governmental regulation. Furthermore, while the effect of the corn-ethanol program on retail food prices is debatable (given the small fraction that commodity prices partake of retail food costs), there can be little question that the corn-ethanol program is driving up corn commodity prices, and thus the cost of its own feedstock. In addition, corn commodity prices are driven by oil prices, which feed into fertilizer process, farm vehicle and pump operating costs, and transport costs. Thus, as the price of oil rises, so do the feedstock costs of the corn ethanol industry (with corn rising from $2.50/bushel to $7/bushel over the past three years, for example), and these costs are estimated to comprise 70% of the cost of their product. Thus, if the ethanol industry is limited to corn feedstock, both its size, and its potential profitability will remain limited, regardless of how high the price of oil rises.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.